Polar and Longitudinal Magneto-Optic Effects in a Planar Geometry

Abstract

The contributions of the propagation, impedance, and polarization perturbations to the magneto-optic effects in a lossless material are described. The general first-order characteristic matrices that include all three perturbations are formulated following the method of Smith for the polar and the longitudinal magnetooptic effects. Using the thin-film approximations, amplitude transmission and reflection coefficients are derived for a magneto-optic layer that is bounded by two nonmagneto-optic materials. The resulting coefficients are a simplified form of those given by Yoshino and Tanaka. These coefficients were expanded in a power series to show the nature of the multiple reflections within the magneto-optic layer. Because secondorder terms are neglected, the thin-film approximation applies only to small total effects. The transmission and reflection coefficients are derived for the thick-film approximation and are compared with the thin-film approximation.